He started his academic career at the University of the Azores in 1991, and obtained his PhD in Plant Ecology in 2001.

His main interests are in plant ecology and biodiversity: rare plants, plant invaders, molecular ecology, species distribution modeling. He has been involved in the elaboration of plant lists for the Azores, namely a general checklist, a list of top invasive species, and a list of threatened taxa, and has coordinated the vascular plant list in the Azorean Biodiversity Portal. He has been developing applications of Bayesian statistics to ecology, namely in the study of plant and palaeocommunities. In the area of modeling, he is presently working with the distribution and biomass production of woody plant invaders. He teaches mainly in the areas of applied statistics and ecology from bachelor to doctorate levels, and presently coordinates the Master Program in Environment, Health and Safety.